All Rise...

Editor's Note

Our review of Traffik, published October
24th, 2001, is also available.

The Charge

"My name is Jack Lithgow and my daughter is a heroine addict."

The Case

By now, most audiences know that Steven Soderbergh's Traffic was based on the British
six-part Masterpiece Theatre miniseries Traffik. Acorn Media
released Traffik on DVD back in 2001 and is now releasing a "20th
Anniversary Edition." The previous edition was reviewed by Judge Barrie
Maxwell (now retired). In his review, Judge Maxwell ably summed up the series as
well as the many reasons why the original is superior to Traffic. He was
right back then and remains correct to this day, so I won't go over much
background material here.

Traffik follows three separate, but connected, storylines cutting
between England, Germany, and Pakistan. The principle figures are Jack (Bill
Paterson, Sunshine), a minister in the
British government who discovers that his daughter, Caroline (Julia Ormond, First Knight), is a heroine addict;
Helen (Lindsay Duncan, Under The
Tuscan Sun), a woman whose husband is a drug lord; and Fazal (Jamal Shah), a
Pakistani, who works in the drug trade because it is the only way to make enough
money to feed his family.

All the storylines are compelling, complete, and fully integrated, unlike
the sometimes confusing and superficial Hollywood version. Traffik is a
mostly bleak tale about the international drug trade and addiction. However, the
series goes far beyond those concrete subjects, delving deep into the dynamics
of relationships between people. One theme is that everyone is corruptible given
the right set of circumstances and surrounding cast of people. Individuals can
become cold-blooded when their lifestyle or image are on the line. Good people
with good intentions can cause deep pain for those they love when they are
careless, inattentive, or blind themselves to reality. Communication breaks down
and relationships suffer in stressful situations. The result is an epic, often
gut-wrenching tale that's so engrossing it's easy to watch the entire series in
one sitting.

The performances are excellent across the board. The only weak point is the
German section, where that the acting is definitely a notch below the other two
settings.

No doubt the big question on the minds of owners of the previous DVD release
of Traffik is whether the transfer has improved. Judge Maxwell noted that
the image was "very grainy or hazy virtually throughout, with little
discernible difference in quality between interior and exterior, or night- and
daytime shots." I have never scene the original release, so I can't compare
it with this version, but I can tell you that the image for this "20th
Anniversary Edition" is disappointing. This is supposed to be a
"remastered" edition, but the picture quality far from great. The
colors are soft, the picture is hazy throughout, and grain remains (if only
Criterion could have worked on this). The audio is unremarkable, and sometimes
unclear, but it's adequate for the most part. Luckily, unlike the previous
edition, there are English subtitles to fill in any gaps.

The extras are all on disc two. For the most part, they are the same as the
original release: an interview with Writer Simon Moore and Producer Brian
Eastman, notes about adapting Traffik into Traffic, and
filmographies of some of the cast and crew. The new extras are a photo gallery
and the extended United Kingdom broadcast version of the final episode of the
series. The extended episode contains some extra scenes, including a new opening
scene involving Jack in Pakistan. There's nothing particularly earth shattering
though. The new scenes amount to about 12 minutes of additional running
time.

Traffik: 20th Anniversary Edition is worth a look if you have never
seen it. However, if you already own the previous release and are thinking about
an upgrade, it really depends on how much you value the subtitles and extended
episode.